Members from around the world are showing ways to “love thy neighbor as thyself” (Matthew 22:39).
Through various service projects, including working on a community park in Ecuador, making washable feminine hygiene kits in Australia and planting trees in the Philippines, Latter-day Saints are improving the areas they live in and helping those in need.
YSAs serve in Ecuador
A community service project, put on by young single adults from the Quito Ecuador Chillogallo Stake, strengthened ties between the Church and the Chillogallo community, reported the Church’s Ecuador Newsroom. Meeting with neighborhood leaders of the La Mena Catholic parish, roughly 30 volunteers helped clean up the Mariscal de Ayacucho playground. The playground serves about 300 people living in the area.
Women helping women in Australia
On May 6, 50 women from the Church in Perth, Australia, joined together to volunteer their time to make washable feminine hygiene kits for girls and women in need, reported the Church’s Australia Newsroom. The women partnered with Days for Girls International, a non-profit organization that gives sustainable menstrual health solutions to girls.
Jodi Waldon, a Young Women leader in the Perth area, said that they wanted “to help our young women recognize the blessing of living in Australia and raise awareness of the needs of other girls elsewhere in the world and enjoy the feelings that come from serving.”
Sowing hope in the Philippines
In the coastal community of San Rafael 4, Cavite, on Luzon, more than 100 volunteers — both members of the Church and of the community — planted 25 mangrove seedling trees each, according to the Church’s Philippines Newsroom. In total 2,000 seedlings were purchased by the Church and the local Rotary Club and planted by volunteers. The mangrove trees will help mitigate the area’s recurring flooding.
“As members of the Church and as human beings, we know that it is our duty to protect the environment as stewards of the Lord’s creation,” said Cavite Philippines Stake President Albert Maquimot, who was at the event. “What we have done today by planting those seeds will have a long-term and positive effect in this area.”
Leah Olindan Balen, of the Municipal Environment and Natural Resources Office, was also in attendance. “We need these kinds of activities to replenish our environment in the form of mangrove tree planting,” she said.
Representatives from the local government, the Municipal Environment and Natural Resources Office, and the Bureau of Fisheries and Aquatic Resources, and the Bureau of Fire were at the tree-planting event.
